Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain Archives

‘The Earth is our Master Teacher’ with Bernard Kelly-Edwards

May 9, 2018

by metaphor with No Comment Aboriginal world views Art and Culture Bush therapy Communication Counselling Cultural Knowledge Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain Healing from Trauma Healing the planet Healing with nature Health and wellbeing Indigenous Voices Speaking Up Listening Mental health Mindfulness Mother Earth Podcast Racism Shame Social and emotional wellbeing Spiritual practices Storytelling Talk the Walk podcast Traditional Healing Practices Trauma-informed practice

This week on ‘Talk the Walk’ I sit down with Bernard Kelly-Edwards in the middle of his tiny art shop in the thriving alternative community of Bellingen. Bernard is surrounded by paintings, expressions of who he is, a local Gumbayngirr man, and symbols of the deep spiritual connection to country that he shares with others.

Bernard began his own journey of self-discovery attending a cultural program called Red Dust Healing and now reaches out to other individuals and groups to support Closing the Gap in cultural understanding. It is his passion for promoting mental health amongst Indigenous young people using the healing capacity of Miimga (Mother Earth) that is the focus of our conversation today.

His business, BKE Consultancy is a unique mix of multi-media platforms of art, photography, short film, poetry and storytelling. Bernard brings all these talents, along with skills of deep listening and knowledge of Aboriginal Lore, recognising sight and the feeling of cultural sites, passed down to him.

A few times in this conversation, Bernard speaks of the spirit being, the one with no mouth. He is describing the image in the painting, he is seen holding here.

This is what we explore in Episode 22 of ‘Talk the Walk’:

Bernard’s approach to ‘counselling’ using the tools he has found most effective from his own experience and gifts from Mother Earth
What deep listening really looks and feels like, for our own and others’ health and wellbeing
Easy practices you can try at home to develop your spiritual connection with Mother Earth and your self
The elements of life such as water, animals and wind that make communication and connection possible
Lessons for how we are living our lives, from the Earth’s perspective
Awareness – Balance – and Integration; Bernard’s 3 step strategy for healing of the planet beginning at home
How Bernard uses the concept of perceptual positions to assist individuals to take responsibility in their own healing process
Making deadly choices and being in the present moment, using the model of awareness, balance and integration
How Bernard works with the triggering emotions of individual’s past traumatic experiences to change belief systems and move people forward
Bernard’s sparkling moment – a good news story of healing
Bernard’s painting and it’s interpretation of his own spiritual form

Image: Bernard K Edwards

To listen to this episode simply click on the Play button below or listen via the Stitcher App for iOS, Android, Nook and iPad.

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Don’t forget, if you or someone you know would make a great interview on ‘Talk the Walk’, send us an email from the Contact Page.

We apologise for some of the human-made background noise at the beginning of this interview. That’s what happens when you are talking with real people on the job in the heart of their community. Sometimes you just have to go with it. Enjoy!

Things to follow up after the episode:

Connect with Bernard K Edwards on Facebook

Connect with BKE Consultancy on Facebook

Contact Bernard by email at bkeconsultancy79(at)hotmail(dot)com

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‘Nature’s cure for all our ills’

September 27, 2017

by metaphor with No Comment Bush therapy Cross Cultural practice Culturally Fit Social Workers Disease and illness Ecotherapy Forest bathing Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain Healing the planet Healing with nature Health and wellbeing Mindfulness Nature and Forest Therapy Shinrin Yoku Spiritual practices Traditional Healing Practices Two way learning

Have you ever wondered what nature could offer you and your clients… especially those that are affected by chronic stress, mental health issues, physical pain, despair and heartache?

I have just completed an initial week’s training intensive to become a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide. I can attest to both the physical and mental health benefits that being in nature offers. I had a heightened awareness that back and groin pain which has been niggling me for 12 months suddenly disappeared. I noticed that stress that I had been carrying in my jaw and neck from my fast-paced, outcomes driven, work life floated away with the clouds that passed overhead. I was connecting and communicating with beings from the more-than-human world in an intimate way, that I had never felt before. I also discovered a tall tree overlooking a valley held a message of hope for my heart despairing at the state of our planet. It was freeing for my mind, body and soul. But don’t just take my word for it.

There is a lot of emerging evidence about the health effects of being in the forest. Scientific research on the practice of Shinrin Yoku (or forest bathing) in Japan has found that simply being in the wilderness can increase immune function, reduce blood pressure, reduce stress, improve mood, increase focus and concentration, improve rates of recovery from surgery and illness, increase energy and improve sleep.

How is that so? Well, the same compound that trees emit to protect themselves from germs and pests is the same essential oil that improves our immune system. They are called phytoncides and they produce cancer-fighting natural killer cells in our body.

Guides-in-training and members of the public experience the ‘Pleasures of Presence’ on a Forest Therapy walk in the Redwoods of the Yarra Ranges (Sept 2017). Photo: Jana Norman.

We always knew that being in nature felt good, didn’t we? Now there is real evidence to prove that living a fast, active, technology dominant lifestyle is counterproductive and could potentially promote chronic physical and mental illness. People on regular forest therapy walks are also reporting feeling happier, developing deeper more meaningful relationships, feeling more connected with the land and its species, having more energy and developing a more attuned intuition.

It seems as though the Western world, is just catching up to what Indigenous peoples have always known. During my time on the Tiwi Islands, as both a drug and alcohol counsellor and children’s counsellor, Elders and other strong women repeatedly spoke about ‘going out bush’ as the best remedy for ‘wrong thinking’ and wayward behaviour. Within my capacity and resources, I drew on the knowledge of these wiser ones to host healing camps out bush with families who were going through hard times and to reconnect children who were going off the rails with a traditional healing ceremony on country (or if that was not possible at least use the metaphors of the natural world in our therapeutic conversations).

What can ‘walking on country’ practised for thousands of years by Aboriginal people do for our health and wellbeing?

In Forest Therapy, the medicine we need is waiting to be discovered in nature and it is up to the client to do the hard work of discovering what the forest is telling them. The Guide simply opens the door for people by offering them mindful invitations, being open to listening to the messages of support, encouragement, healing or survival that are communicated by all living things. This concept sounds very familiar too, observed in the way Aboriginal women demonstrate their spiritual connection to the land. I’ve been woken up in the middle of the night by the barking owl to be advised that (insert name) must have passed away. I’ve been out hunting when a branch has fallen from a tree, a sign from the ancestors that there is a possum there to be caught for dinner. I’ve watched women scouting the bush for ‘just the right vine’ which will yield a big, long, fat yam two feet underground, left wondering how do they know, when all vines look the same? And I’ve heard numerous stories of miracle cures for persistent ailments using bush medicine, where modern medicine has failed. The knowledge for living a good and healthy life is right there on country, if we are in tune.

Unfortunately, the government policies of today are forcing Aboriginal people off their country and into the towns to be closer to services, and along with this, alcohol, drugs, unhealthy food options and other social issues like overcrowding and domestic violence. We are seeing the health effects of this lifestyle for Aboriginal people and it’s not good.

As a social worker, this has got me thinking seriously about nature as a form of intervention for people who come to us for help. The forest provides healing in gentle and profound ways, that we as humans cannot. It requires a step away from evidence-based talk therapies from Western culture towards intuitive traditional healing practices and spiritual connections to nature that have been used for thousands of years.

If we don’t believe the anecdotal evidence from Aboriginal people about the positive health effects of being connected to country, then we can at least take notice of the emerging evidence from shinrin yoku practices in Japan.
Nature has something for everyone. Even those of us whose heart is aching for the destruction of nature itself.

How a Life of Devotion to Kinship Care saved Patricia from Death by Heart Disease

June 29, 2016

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Patricia works as a Child and Family Support Worker at Relationships Australia NT

It was a total accident that Patricia Munkara came to be employed at Relationships Australia as an Aboriginal Child and Family Support Worker. Another Patricia in the community had applied for the job and when I went knocking on doors trying to find her, I ended up going to the wrong house. Or the right house depending on how you look at it. It was Patricia Munkara that ended up with the job. And I am so grateful she did. Now five years later, Patricia has also joined the Healing Our Children project.

There are many things that I admire about Patricia, not least of which was her decision to adopt her grandson six years ago and raise him as her own. This required Patricia to turn her back on a life of gambling, smoking and family unrest.

“He [Patrick] was like an underweight baby, 6 months old, and he was all covered in sores. We didn’t have welfare that time. But luckily I talked to my niece about me and my partner, giving him to us. ‘We can grow him up’ I said. He [Patrick] made me change.”

“I used to gamble, get involved in fighting and violence, arguing with other family. When Patrick came into my care, I learnt bit by bit…. to look after him”

“It changed my life you know, doing good things for him.”

“I want to teach him growing up, take him to school everyday, make sure I keep him healthy. When he is sick I take him to clinic straight away.”

Patricia had clear hopes and dreams for Patrick including teaching him to be independent, work for himself and look after himself.

“Mum was a rolemodel. She taught me everything. How to be independent myself. ‘Look after yourself’ my mum said, ‘maybe in the future you’ll have your brothers grandchildren or children [to look after]’. And that’s true, her word. She taught me how to hunt when there’s no food…She said ’You might go hunting for your brothers kids or grandchildren’. Now I’m doing that.”

“My mum was an adopted kid too. That’s what I’m doing now. Me and Rosita (my sister) growing up kids”.

“I don’t want him (Patrick) when he finish up school to walk around like bludger, doing bad things. Instead [he do] good things.”

One of Patricia’s other strength is her faith and culture. This is something that was also passed down from her mum and dad.

“I had to pray, go to church. I remember crying for my mum and dad when they used to go to church. I used to run behind them when they leave me home.”

“I always be with my dad when he do that kulama ceremony…. He taught me hunting, where my country is, from each place. I still remember going to our country. Our dad took us there when I was a little girl. And we’re teaching our children now.”

Patricia working in the Healing Our Children project.

Patricia says one of the big motivations for her to become a carer was her knowledge that Patrick was going to grow up without the love of a father. This is where Andrew, her partner comes in as a strong male role model.

“… other kids are bullying and teaching him wrong things, behaviour like swearing and backtalk. I don’t like it… He’s got that cheeky attitude because of those other friends. So Andrew said ‘OK, bring him here [to Raminginging]. [It’s] my turn, I’m gonna teach him now. Andrew gonna grow him up and make him man. So he learn ‘lore’ and he understand behaviour.”

“Andrew will make sure he is [learning about] healthy weight and eating. Andrew teach him about hunting and bush tucker.“

Life hasn’t been easy for Patricia. She has suffered from rheumatic heart disease, the number one killer of young people on the Tiwi Islands.

“I had twice heart surgery. Before I went to Adelaide I was still crying for [Patrick]. The doctor told me that I had two choices. Whether you gonna live or whether you gonna finish. He said to me ‘I give you this pacemaker then you will last longer…and see your grandson growing’. I said to the doctor ‘I don’t want to die, leave my grandson’. I want to raise him up, see him grow, have a little family of his own.”

Patricia with Patrick (right) and his younger brother Albert.

So strong is her faith, love and devotion to Patrick, Patricia has even cheated death, to make sure she is around to finish what she started.

“Yeah, Jesus and Mary, they were calling out to me and waking me up. I can remember how I slept, and I was finish, my heart was stopped…When I heard that voice, it was calling out to me get up, get up. I opened my eyes and I saw that bright light. I was in a strange room. I was nearly finish, three days finish, in intensive care… All them nurses, doctors and everything, they had put it [defribulator] on my chest. It wasn’t them that bought me back to life, because I seen that bright light. He [Jesus] was still there standing beside me. He said ‘you not dead, you still alive’. He said, ‘I know what you worrying for…[you are] too much worrying for Patrick and you didn’t want to leave him behind”.

Patricia also believes in the power of culture for healing, something she learned from her father.

“Our doctor told my mum and dad ‘your child got asthma’. My dad used to go hunting every day and when I finished school I always see long bum, mangrove worm, mud muscles cooking. I used to eat that after school. When Kulama ceremony came, my dad gave me that potato to eat, that chilli potato cured my asthma…. Following week I went to check with doctor, no more puffer for me. And when they found out, they sent me for x ray, they thought I had lung problem but nothing. No more short of breath, nothing.”

Patricia is one of the strongest people I know when it comes to tough love and protecting herself from the stress of family humbug. The warning signs of feeling weak and low blood pressure means she takes some time out for herself.

“I help myself. I stay home, watch TV. Sit outside for fresh air or listen to music. Or go for a walk to the airport and come back. When night-time come….sometimes say a little bit of prayer then sleep.”

Thinking about the impact that Patricia has had on Patrick’s life, she recalls Patrick telling her recently

“Amawu [grandma], I can remember everything you taught me, I’m still growing and I’m still gonna learn more from you. And I’m gonna teach my little brother.”

For Patricia the impact on her is profoundly simple “He has given me new life.”

But the last word should go to Patrick. When I asked him what was the best thing about his grandma he replied

“Amawu tells me go to school and learn everyday.’

Patricia is now considering having another two children come into her kinship care. Despite being on the Disability Pension, Patricia chooses to work because she is passionate about protecting children in her community and supporting women who are struggling. It’s a privilege to work alongside such an inspirational strong woman.

Recipes Of Life: How cooking is transforming my relationships, community and work

October 10, 2014

by metaphor with No Comment Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain My personal journey Narrative therapy Pain Practice tools Recipes of Life Strengths and Resilience Strengths-based practice Therapy with Food

Cooking in the Mulch Pit Community Garden.

Many years ago I started an initiative which I called the Community Chef. The idea was to share recipes using local food and a dozen of us would gather in someone’s house to prepare and cook these together. I remember the smell of garlic and ginger being pushed around the wok, the laughter of men gathered round the stove, the chatter of women munching on carrots and homemade spinach dips, and handwritten recipes handed down in families or along cultural storylines. There was something about this experience that was pretty darn special. Even though our community cooking nights have moved to an outdoor kitchen at my local community garden, this method of sharing knowledge and skills in such an earthy, organic way has huge therapeutic potential for each one of us. It does not assume that only one person is the expert but that we can all be teachers and learners.

It was pretty ironic that I would meet Natalie Rudland-Wood at around the same time as starting the Community Chef. Natalie had developed the Recipes of Life program, adapted from similar narrative folk cultural methodologies like the Tree of Life. Natalie was using Recipes to engage children and young people affected by homelessness in conversations about their lives using the metaphor of food. Cooking and counselling was proving to be an effective mix. In documenting and sharing their Recipes for overcoming hard times, the kids were experts in their own lives and becoming supportive mentors for their peers!

Having recently won a small grant, I’m currently preparing a program to trial Recipes of Life with refugees and asylum seekers living in Darwin. It is not my intention to describe how the program works, but instead give you “a taster” by sharing my own recently crafted Recipe of Life. Hopefully, you will see the two-fold potential therapeutic benefits, for the person writing their recipe and contributing it to the life of another, and the person receiving it (who might also be experiencing hard times).

LUCY’S RECIPE FOR LIVING WITH CHRONIC BACK PAIN

Ingredients

Mental strength one bucket

Support a cup overflowing

Mindfulness 1 shovel full

Stamina a heap

Willpower as much as you can muster

Good diet 1 teaspoon per day

Exercise between 1 teaspoon and 1 cup per week

Acceptance ideally 1 pinch per day

Patience 1 handful per day

Understanding doesn’t need to be added, just happens

Sourcing

The origins of Mental Strength are home grown after watching my mum who has had to put up with a lot over the years. I remember having it after leaving home and it grows stronger every year.

Support is ‘on loan’ from my generous husband and kind friends. It is always available but not always easy to accept.

The ideas and principles of Mindfulness have been imported over the years from friends, books, people I don’t know on the internet and Buddhist Monk, Gen Kelsang Dornying.

Stamina and Willpower is cultured from home as a result of leaving my birthplace and family in my early twenties and learning to rely on myself.

Good Diet and exercise are a mix of home grown skills of listening to my body mixed with advice from trusted naturopaths and chiropractors. This sometimes gets confusing as the two sources can be conflictual. But in the end, I know best, over any expert advice.

Acceptance is reluctantly borrowed from God who makes it easier to understand the need for this Recipe.

Patience is a gift from gentle role-models like my mum and Nelson Mandela.

Understanding is also a gift that presents itself from the mixing of all the other ingredients.

Method

Blend together mental strength and support using a wheelbarrow and shovel. Pack down tight into the bottom of the wheelbarrow so there are no gaps. You can’t afford to let any contaminants spoil this mix.

In a bowl, whisk together mindfulness, stamina and willpower. Set it aside to ferment. This will take a minimum of six months. Every day add good diet to the bowl. Once a week add in exercise, not too much, just the right balance (depending on how you feel). If it hurts, back off and just add the minimum required. Even though you don’t like it, you must add small amounts of Acceptance especially on bad days. For best results, add a pinch every day along with Patience. The fermenting process is complete when Understanding has developed. You are now ready to add this mix to the wheelbarrow.

Spread on top and leave out in the pure natural rays of the sun to cook. It will rise in the heat.

This recipe will take at least six months to ferment and develop its subtle flavour because you have to adjust ingredients as you go, depending on the level of pain on a given day. Full maturity may take as long as two years.

Mental Strength is the backbone of the recipe. Without it, the recipe is doomed.

NB: My special tip is on really bad days to consume double the dose. For example, for my peace of mind, I had to advocate strongly to get an MRI against doctor’s advice which was “not clinically indicated”. This takes a double dose of Mental Strength.

Serving Suggestion

Sometimes you will have to eat this in bed.

But the ideal way to serve it is at the end of the day, preferably in front of the sunset on the beach, surrounded by loved ones. I would have my immediate family, mum and close friends there, swaying in cosy hammocks with not a care in the world. The spread would be laid out on a huge picnic blanket with simple pure white crockery, the best silverware I could afford and fancy etched glasses with pink champagne. The picnic basket would never run out of food. We could eat as much as we wanted. There would be a high tide, lapping at our feet and a gentle breeze with the sweet smell of frangipani’s tickling my nose. The sound of curlews would ring out gently and intercept the laughter and joy of friendship. I would speak with gratitude in honour of my soul mate and husband for sticking by me “in sickness and in health” for 21 years and the support of all those since that have drifted through my life, sharing their knowledge, encouragement and love. A fairy would magically come and do all the washing up, leaving everything sparkly clean back in the picnic basket.

Has this got you thinking about how to use these ideas in your work?

Or perhaps how your personal Recipe could actually make a difference to the life of someone else?

Read more about Recipes of Life by downloading Natalie’s article in the International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work or watch a video about her methodology. If you’d like to write your own Recipe, contact us.

“Let’s Do Dadirri” – Using your Inner Wisdom on this rocky Journey called Life

September 25, 2014

by metaphor with No Comment Aboriginal world views Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain Healing from Trauma Indigenous Voices Speaking Up My personal journey Self Care Strengths and Resilience

How often do you stop and sit in quiet still awareness, open to listening to what your inner voice is saying to you? For some, this might be too confronting, perhaps afraid of what they might hear. However for the majority, it seems our busy world distracts us from this important human task. Those who practice regular meditation will have some idea of what it is like to sit in quiet still awareness, and be open to receiving new insight into what the body and mind needs at any particular point in time. For those with no time to do nothing – you could be missing out on so much more that life has to offer!

Before I moved to the Northern Territory, I had been told by two different employers that I should “stop and smell the roses occasionally”. This is difficult to hear by one who is passionately driven in their work. Then I came across the words of Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, an Aboriginal Elder from Nauiyu (Daly River) who talks about Dadirri like it is the essence of human life.

“Dadirri is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’.

When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the riverbank or walk through the trees; even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silent awareness. There is no need of words. A big part of dadirri is listening.”

“In our Aboriginal way, we learnt to listen from our earliest days. We could not live good and useful lives unless we listened. This was the normal way for us to learn – not by asking questions. We learnt by watching and listening, waiting and then acting.”

These words really struck me. And I have carried them with me from the moment I stepped onto Aboriginal land to work with the Tiwi people. For the first four months, I hardly spoke a word. I sat around with women Elders drinking cups of tea and listened as they generously poured out their stories – about them, about their community, about their people, about their hopes and dreams, and about what they didn’t want whitefellas doing to them anymore. I learnt a lot by keeping my mouth shut.

Since injuring my back in January this year, I have had a lot more hours lying around in quiet still awareness, listening to what my body needs. This has tended to be more reliable than the advice from doctors, physios, chiros and even well intentioned friends.

Dadirri doesn’t have to take a long time out of your day or be some mindblowing, life course altering transformation. For instance, today I stopped to contemplate an out-of-the-blue email from an interstate colleague I’ve never met face-to-face, suggesting I read a book called “Leadership Beyond Good Intentions”. She courageously suggested that “this book might help you look after yourself…as you continue your social leadership journey.” I didn’t even realise I was on a social leadership journey! I wondered whether others would have laughed off this observation, made a polite response and hit Delete. But her insight got me contemplating. What can she see that I can’t? Where am I being lead? Well, there was only one way to find out. I ordered the book.

Anyway, it was all this contemplation that led me to write this blog…..

What are the signposts in your life that you haven’t noticed because you’ve been too busy?
What do the sights, smells and sounds around you have you feeling and thinking?
What is that piece of music or the bird that pooped on your head, really saying!
Stop and take notice. Chances are your thoughts will be a reflection of what is important to you, who you really are and what you need. It’s your inner wisdom talking.

“[Dadirri] is in everyone. It is not just an Aboriginal thing.”—Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann

When All Else Fails, Push Play : The Healing Power of Music

September 11, 2014

by metaphor with No Comment Expressive therapies Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain Healing from Trauma My personal journey

Xavier Rudd follows the sun to the water.

Have you ever been so moved by a song that you look back and think that was a turning point in your life?

I was never really one to be touched by music in a really emotional way, until I reached my thirties. I was a third year university student and sitting in on the first lecture of Working With Indigenous Communities with Tony Kelly, a passionate man who had worked in the NT for 30 years. The only reason I’d taken his elective was out of curiosity – I’d heard that he cried in class. He pushed play on the cassette player (remember those?) and out came Paul Kelly’s From Little Things Big Things Grow. The tears started to form at the corner of my eyes and what followed was five months of no-holds-barred, in-ya-face black history (what I’d never learnt at school) and an invitation to take a long hard look at myself and my whiteness. Yep, it was a turning point. From Little Things… was a tiny seed planted and watered, which led me back to the NT.

Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is a beautiful song, but it wasn’t until I watched the journey of the Choir of Hard Knocks culminating in their performance at the Sydney Opera House, that it gave me goosebumps. What Jonathan Welch and the homeless people of Sydney achieved together was nothing less than inspiring. Did you know that Leonard Cohen’s career had reached a low point when he wrote Hallelujah in 1984 and his record company didn’t bat an eyelid at it? Every time I hear it now, the goosebumps return.

I have a colleague, who I worked with just long enough a few years ago to make a spiritual connection through shared values and views about the world. We go months without seeing or talking to each other as we both lead busy and very different lives. However, earlier this year, when I was having a particularly tough time and felt like I had come to a crossroad, I got a call from her out of the blue. All she said to me was, listen to Rudd’s song – Follow Your Heart. When I opened the you-tube clip and and was invited to check “which way is the wind blowing”, tears welled up. Not so much because it became obvious to me what I should do. But because this distant friend, like a guardian angel or something, had delivered this message to me. Another turning point.

And this brings me to my last favourite song – another off Xavier Rudd’s album – Spirit Bird. See if you can get through this one without shedding a tear! Like a fighting warrior, these words provide the inspiration for me to keep going and never give up. I know I’m heading in the right direction.

I can count the number of songs that move me to tears or lift me up out of a low point, on one hand. But that’s what makes them all the more special.

What about you? In hard times, what are the songs that bring you healing? Share them. It could make all the difference to the life of another.

“Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul.” Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Body Drawing: An art therapy approach to healing from chronic pain.

Healing from Chronic Pain or Injury: My 3 Rules for playing the Mind Game

August 7, 2014

by metaphor with No Comment Art therapy Expressive therapies Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain My personal journey

Body Drawing: An art therapy approach to healing from chronic pain.

This week I sliced my finger. I was cleaning our ceiling fan blades, something I’d been trying to do for months. In the first instance, I fell into a pit of anger and frustration because I couldn’t finish the job. Ruminating, I stared at the ceiling, clasping a bunch of tissues which filled up with blood over my painful little pinkie. To the distracting but somewhat comforting beat of my throbbing pulse, I eventually pulled myself off the sulky road I was heading down, and contemplated how I might now constructively fill in the rest of my day. I decided to do something I enjoyed – some drawing or painting or both. Half an hour later, I consulted the first aid book locked away in my brain and decided a dose of Betadine and a couple of strong bandaids was all that was required.

Ironically, this is the same process I went through when I popped a disc sweeping up the floor in January. However this injury was much more serious and I haven’t yet fully recovered. I lead an active lifestyle and see the glass half full most of the time, but this pushed me to my absolute limits. The mental anguish of being bed bound is much worse than physical pain and I could have easily slipped into depression, if anger and frustration had gotten hold. I began thinking about the things I consciously do to give myself the best chance of healing without letting the world crumble down around me. Here are my 3 tips for healing from chronic pain, keeping your spirit intact!

Listen to what your body is telling you to do.

The voices of ‘experts’ in treatment have valuable things to offer but not the only answer. My doctor, physio and chiropractor all had different opinions about my back injury and how it should be treated. The conflicting advice I received was confusing and my back seemed to get worse. Eventually, I refused to do some of the exercises because it didn’t feel right. I had to force my doctor to refer me for an “unnecessary” MRI which revealed a type of degenerative disc disease that he knew nothing about it. I ended up doing my own research to find a path of recovery for myself. In desperation for pain relief, I found an acupuncturist/physio who confirmed what I suspected all along. Don’t do any exercise that causes pain! He cut me back to one exercise and that was the beginning of my recovery, five months after my initial injury. I know if I ever do this kind of injury again, I have a first aid plan, based pretty much on “Treat Your Own Back”. I also know I have a really strong gut instinct which steers me in the right direction.

Put your mind on a leash.

This is the hardest thing to do when you are in constant pain. Give it some slack and your mind will take off, leaving you feeling powerless. Worry and self doubt tried to convince me that I might never be healthy and strong again. I was also plagued with guilt for lying around and not contributing to the functioning of our family household. A turning point for me came when I created a Body Drawing. On one of my worst days, I lay down and quietly meditated on how my body felt for a few minutes, noticing the pain, tension, and other sensations. Then I took a piece of paper and drew what I had noticed. Looking objectively at what I had drawn, I knew I had to take positive action to not let my mind dominate, as it was contributing to avoidable tension in my body and inhibiting recovery. The Body Drawing is a good exercise to repeat several times over the course of recovery, so that you can appreciate the positive steps forward you are taking and that change however slight, is happening.

Find creative ways to keep doing things you enjoy.

One of the most difficult things with chronic pain is not being able to do things you love. For three months, I wasn’t able to sit. I either had to lie on my back or stand. And standing for long periods of time wasn’t good either. I became teary and upset at not being able to do the things I normally enjoy like gardening and bike riding (I had just bought a new mountain bike).

Now when I look back, I am grateful for the down time I was forced to take. I taught myself how to set up a business and website and even went to some free business seminars, standing on my feet throughout the whole training. I wrote my first blog flat out on my back because my thoughtful hubby bought me a bed desk.

It’s important to stay connected to the things you are passionate about, within your limitations. I couldn’t work in the community garden, but I still went along and chatted to the gardeners doing all the hard yakka. I took up new pursuits like Universal Healing Meditation and Playback Theatre which have added value to my healing process. Think creatively and you can find a way, perhaps with a little help from some painkillers now and again!

The Mind Game of healing from chronic pain or injury is a constant challenge. Just keep strong hold of that leash, and breathe.

…metaphorically speaking

Posts in category: Healing from Injury and Chronic Pain